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Dolls house writ large

‘Pretend my house is a dolls house, but on a bigger scale’

That was my pitch to my friend and fellow blogger The Shopping Sherpa when I invited her to help me sort out my house. She specialises in building scenes around themes and individual items with the objects she has at hand. I, on the other hand, had a houseful of great stuff, but was clueless about how to arrange it so that it looked great and became a welcoming place to live. It was a perfect match.

The Shopping Sherpa starting work on the ‘shrine’ of some favourite things, including a cross stitch that you’ve seen here before

We worked for almost 7 hours (with my partner’s help) trying out ideas, theming areas, making scenes and eventually going shopping for the bits that were missing, which turned out to include a full set of dining chairs. My partner and I have been staring at the new look since we downed tools last night – it’s completely changed the feel of our home, and all for the better. One interesting change I’ve already found is in the reading nook – it used to have a chair, a coffee table and a lamp. It was very comfortable, but somehow I never ended up wanting to read there. Now it’s got a couple of extra chairs, a foot stool, a huge book case and a completely different feel, making it a perfect place to disappear with a book; or with my dinner as you can see in the last photo below. The only drawback to taking this on is the way it’s changed the way I look at the areas that haven’t been styled – now I want to dive in and work on them as well. Here’s a quick gallery of what we got up to. Each photo has a caption that’s easiest to see if you click a photo and then click though the gallery from there.

The new setup highlights a lot of our precious gifts from family and friends

It didn’t take us long to peg ‘bright and colourful’ as the theme for the lounge room – there were so many colourful bits at hand.

And some bits just *work* together

I couldn’t help trying out a colour sorted book case, even though the Shopping Sherpa’s librarian sensibilities cried out in horror

The lounge room has become a colourful nook that comfortably seats a roleplaying group…

…though it’s still too small for me to take one photograph of the whole area.

The local tip shop turned up some great pieces for the dining room and reading nook

…though some of them need a bit of work.

Our love of high fantasy shows through in some more grown-up ways (though not very grown up!) Yes, that’s a knight’s-helmet-beanie on the hat rack.

It’s refreshing to have a dinner area that looks coordinated. Our mismatched chairs were great for when we’d just moved in, but five years on they were a bit jarring.

Despite what the photos suggest, not everything’s organised yet.

My house was enough to wear out even the hardiest Shopping Sherpa

I’ve been enjoying my new spaces. The reading nook turns out to be a great spot for dinner for one.

I’ve decided the colour sorted book case should work for a few reasons:
1. I’m pretty good with the covers of my books, and they almost always match the spines, so that should work out well
2. We haven’t had sorted books since we moved six months ago, and I’ve survived that
3. Having the colours like that mean I smile every time I see my books, and I find books I hadn’t considered reading recently. What could be better?

The lounge belongs to a friend; we’re furniture sitting for a year while she’s working in Fiji. I adore the patches, and the way they’ve encouraged us towards such a colourful room. It’s a bit of a pity to see that someone didn’t understand about cutting knitted squares to size though (protip: don’t!). I’ve been meaning to edge them with clear nail polish so they’ll stay together.